.png)
Up My Hockey with Jason Podollan
Up My Hockey with Jason Podollan
Ep. 155 - Burt Henderson- Competing at Every Level: Bert's Path Through Professional Hockey
Bert Henderson shares his remarkable hockey journey from BCHL champion to WHL captain to playing professionally in Japan, before becoming a coach and hockey dad with sons following in his footsteps.
• The importance of compete level in practice and how championship teams are built through daily intensity
• Transition from wanting to be an offensive defenseman to understanding his true strengths and value as a player
• Decision to play professionally in Japan despite NHL aspirations, leading to an eight-year international career
• Experience coaching in the BCHL as GM/head coach while balancing family responsibilities
• The emotional journey of watching his son play for his former WHL team, the Kelowna Rockets
• Coaching philosophy focusing on development, accountability and play away from the puck
• The inspiring story of his youngest son playing competitive hockey despite being legally blind with Stargardt's disease
• How today's game values different player types, with power forwards becoming increasingly rare but valuable
Whether you want to improve as a player, coach, or hockey parent, focus on compete level, character development, and maintaining joy for the game.
You know, I remember, just at practice, it's just like some of them just being like a war out there, you're battling for every puck, and that's how we played.
Speaker 1:That's how we played in games, even with the talent that we had on our team. You know, we had all this high-end talent but our compete level was so high just from the practices that we had and I had a lot to do with the coach, right, that's what he required from us was our compete level at all times being just just, you know, and up here every time, every time you're, you're, you're battling for a puck, um, even our goalies, just just not quitting on any pucks, and you look at that going oh shit, wow, like you know, I'm gonna try to score here, and you know they're, they're going, they, you know goalies are, they don't want anything getting in right and and the competitiveness of just that, seeing that from your goalies. And then you know just that, translating the game, that compete level was so high just from, just from the practice, translating that into the games and, and you know, going as far as we did, playing at that high level, yeah, I mean, you'll never forget that it was such a great year.
Speaker 2:That was former professional player and current coach, bert Henderson, and you are listening to the Up my Hockey podcast with Jason Padolan. Welcome to Up my Hockey with Jason Padolan, where we deconstruct the NHL journey, discuss what it takes to make it and have a few laughs along the way. I'm your host, jason Padolan, a 31st overall draft pick who played 41 NHL games but thought he was destined for a thousand. Learn from my story and those of my guests. This is a hockey podcast about reaching your potential. Hey, hey, hey. This is Jason Padolan and this is the Up my Hockey podcast with Jason Padolan. So welcome to, or welcome back to, the program. Today we are going to be speaking with Bert Henderson.
Speaker 2:Bert is a former teammate of mine with the OG Eagles OG. You ask where is OG? Well, og is in Tamakomai, which is on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan, and that is in the Asia League, so it's just south of Sapporo. I was there, where I earned my last professional paycheck for a couple months, and Bert happened to be on that team. We did play against each other in the WHL years and years previous to that, so we had crossed paths, but then we became teammates for a couple months and I went on to other things.
Speaker 2:Bert went on to play hockey elsewhere. Newcastle is where he ended his professional career in England, but he played in places like Cincinnati for the Cyclones in the IHL. He played in Birmingham in the East Coast League. He was a WHL graduate as well as a BCJHL. He played in Birmingham in the East Coast League. He was a WHL graduate as well as a BCJHL graduate, playing for the Tacoma Rockets and the Kelowna Rockets. He was part of the transition from Tacoma to Kelowna and he also played for the Kelowna Spartans and the Bellina Micehawks of the BCJHL. Bert was a captain of the Rockets. He was always a good leader and somebody that took his craft seriously, and I enjoyed my time with him in Oji. What an experience that was.
Speaker 2:By the way, playing in Japan, I honestly didn't know that there was even professional hockey in Asia. I was retired at the time, going to school, going to university, actually at University of British Columbia, okanagan here and my phone kept ringing from these more kind of obscure professional places that I didn't really knew existed, and Japan was one of these places, and OG only had one allotment of an import that they were allowed and they weren't happy with their import that year and somehow my name came across their desk as a potential pickup and, yeah, the money was good, really good. I wasn't that interested in the university that I was taking it was. It wasn't what I expected it to be and I'd always been super interested in Japan and the culture and the food and just a lot about Japan intrigued me and I was like, well, what a cool vehicle for hockey to take me there.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it was an awesome life experience. I actually fell in love with the game a little bit again while I was over there and that was a really, really cool personal experience for me. As far as Bert is concerned, he went on to be a part of the Langley Rivermen and the Langley Trappers. He was GM head coach in the BCHL for a while and now recently has gotten back in the coaching game with Burnaby Winter Club at the U15 varsity level. This upcoming season he's going to be joining the Burnaby Winter Club U15 prep team. He's loving working with that age group. As you will find out in this conversation, bert also has a 16-year-old at the time of this podcast playing for Kelowna Rockets, so that's come full circle for him, and we touch on that kind of an emotional point in the podcast where he talks about his son playing for the team that he used to captain, which is a really cool experience, I'm sure, for any father who gets to experience that. So, yeah, really good conversation. Like I said, bert has a lot to offer, not only from the player standpoint, but also from the coaching standpoint, also from the hockey dad standpoint. Kind of wears gets to wear all those hats in this interview and um, and yeah, I really enjoyed reconnecting there with bert.
Speaker 2:As far as the podcast is concerned, last episode I requested that anyone listening to the pod download it. I'm doing a little uh, experiment, analytic experiment uh, with those who listen. I know that myself I am not somebody that that downloads podcasts, but it is actually a great way to support the podcast that you like to listen to. Downloads is like the main analytic factor that anyone goes by, so if you aren't downloading the podcast, you are doing a disservice to the host, so I'm just kind of being more curious about the fact of how many people actually listen. Uh, because it is quite uh, it's not as unexpected as it used to be that people will hear my voice and recognize it from the podcast and introduce themselves, or recognize me from the podcast and introduce themselves, and you know emails come in and with thanks for the podcast, so it's kind of cool. There's definitely a lot of people that have chose the podcast as something that they want to listen, that they find value in, and I think that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:The only thing is, though, is it seems like the metrics necessarily aren't really changing too much. So as out of gratitude to me or a request to me, or a favor to me, however you want to put it. I would really appreciate if you download this episode and two episodes from now. I'm going to take kind of the cross-section of the analytics and see if there was a bump in metrics just from having people download. I'm very curious to see and I will share the results of that. So again, press pause. If you haven't, please download this episode and, without further ado, I bring you my conversation with Bert Henderson. All right, here we are with Bert Henderson. This has been a long time coming. Hendy, thanks for joining us on the Up my Hockey Pod. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:I've been wondering when you're going to get me on here. So nice to be on here.
Speaker 2:I rang your bell a few times, but then we just kind of couldn't get it worked out. But you know, now it's working out, you know. Yeah, no, I'm happy to be here. And things got slow enough that you finally earned your spot, you know, on the pod.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, good, good, I'm glad it took a while, but you know this shows you. You know, put in some hard work and finally make it. Things work out.
Speaker 2:Man, now you're on the big stage. But no, in all seriousness, you're going to be awesome to talk to. I mean a lot of love, your story, love where you went to. You know, with the international involvement, your involvement in you know the coaching aspect of BCHL, even the management side. Now you're back in from the development side. You have boys that are playing, so you probably won't even come close to covering it all. But, yeah, I look forward to further discussion. So, yeah, maybe we'll start, maybe we'll start. You're wearing the Rockets uni there, so that's always a good place to maybe a good place to start you. You were originally with with the Spartans in the BCHL and then you went to Tacoma, so maybe let's start with the BCHL journey at that point. And where was that the direction you're headed? Because you thought you wanted to play NCAA or is that just where you ended up playing?
Speaker 1:no, that that was, uh, the direction I was going actually. So I played, um, you know, my first year, 16 year old, actually played in bellingham, uh, for the ice hawks, got called up halfway through the year there, finished off the year there and then ended up getting traded to colonna um, and we had a like a really good team. Obviously we won the centennial cup that year and that was the direction that I wanted to go. I was going, you know, I talked to to schools and and this and that and um, I wanted, you know, I wanted to go right away. I wanted to go to school right away, you know, and I had a late birthday, so it was going to be my draft year. So, um, you know, talking to a few schools, and they said, oh well, you know, you want to play another year in the bchl, and I was like I don't know if I wanted to do that. So well, you know, you want to play another year in the bchl and I was like I don't know if I wanted to do that.
Speaker 1:So then, you know, uh, talking to um at that time, uh, tri-cities actually had my rights in the whl um, and then ended up getting traded. My rights got traded to tacoma, um, who was kind of a new team, expansion team a few years before and they had, you know, something really good going on there for a younger player. So I made the decision. You know it's my draft year, I'm going to take a step here and give the WHL a shot and you know I played three years in the league. Great for me, I enjoyed every bit of it. Great organization, um, you know, still to this day, obviously, even my son playing up there now I still talk to bruce and and gavin and hamilton family. So we're still really close and it's, you know, it's kind of funny, it's come full circle. So it's, it's been nice yeah, that's uh, that's wild.
Speaker 2:So yeah. So the spartans. Well, let's maybe stop on that for a second. So you guys won the Centennial Cup that year and you were there as a 16-year-old. So talk to me about Kelowna, talk to me about what that league was like for you stepping in there at 16 and how that went.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so actually it was my 17-year-old year that I went up there. I went up there when I was 16 because I was a late birthday. So my grade 12 year, my grade 12 year, so it was my second year actually in the league and the coach there at the time, john Oliver, he recruited just as a monster team we had some Americans on the team, kids from Alberta, so I had that half a year experience already. So, going in, I felt pretty comfortable going in there and you know I got partnered up actually with a really good defenseman named Brendan Kenny. He ended up going to Western Michigan, I believe it was, and you know we had a lot of chemistry and you know, for me, for the growth for me at that time, first time away from home in a new school, you know you have to kind of grow up pretty quick, right? So, and that's what I needed, I needed that I need to get away from home, I needed to kind of grow up and just live the life. You know, have the experience of a junior hockey player and once you get a taste of that, well you know like it's, you know it's what you want to do, right. So you know it was. We had a great year.
Speaker 1:Actually, that year we ended up our coach who recruited this monster team I guess we struggled at the start a bit and they ended up letting him go. So the assistant coach at the time, jim Hammett, came in. He went on to, I think he went on to WHL and he ended up scouting the NHL. But he just came in and the guys just just were like, just loved him. So you know, we wanted to play for him.
Speaker 1:They were talking about bringing in a new coach. Possibly we're like no, no, no, we want this guy taking the helm and going and we just had an unreal season. Like we had some of the players that you know played on that team. Our goalie ended up playing in the NHL. Dieter Kocking played inappa for a bit, minnesota, I think, for a little bit. But yeah, we had, you know, after that D core, six of us. None of them returned. They all I went to WHL and five of them got scholarships. Like it was just crazy how you know that team, how many scholarships came out of that team. But honestly, one of the best years of my life living up there.
Speaker 1:I mean living in Kelowna playing junior hockey is not too bad On a good team. It's not too bad right.
Speaker 2:Any lessons from that year? I mean, you know now, after being involved in the game for 20 years, that it's hard to win a championship, even with good players and really good players. So you know to be actually get it done and to get out of the BCJ and then to go win the centennial is is probably one of your, you know, biggest memories and biggest accomplishments, I would assume. Uh, anything that you take away from from that, from that season I mean so much right and just the like.
Speaker 1:Our practices were just so intense. Like you know, coming from basically, you know I had half a year of junior experience, but you know I remember just our practices just being like some of them just being like a war out there.
Speaker 1:You're battling for every puck and that's how we played, that's how we played in games, even with the talent that we had on our team.
Speaker 1:You know we had all this high-end talent but our compete level was so high just from the practices that we had and that had a lot to do with the coach, right, that's what he required from us was our compete level at all times being just, you know, up here every time, every time you're battling for a puck, even our goalies, just not quitting on any puck, and you look at that going oh shit, like, wow, like you know I'm going to try to score here and you know they're going. You know goalies, they don't want anything getting in right and the competitiveness of just that, seeing that from your goalies and then, um, you know just that, translating the game, that compete level was so high just from, just from the practices, translating that into the games and, and you know, going as far as we did um playing at that high level. Um, yeah, I mean that you'll never forget that like it was such a such a great year.
Speaker 1:I love you and I still talk to some of the guys too you know from that team, right?
Speaker 2:so that's one of the best bonding experiences ever. You'll never take away that. You know that connection from winning, uh, and you bring up two awesome points. So now, from a player perspective, those listening, uh, and you, you I mean you're still involved in the game. You're working with young athletes. I'm doing the same thing. I talk about compete all the time, and when you get, when you get the culture right and when it works, you're actually letting the guy down next to you. In practice, if you're not giving your 100, but there's like a social like there's a weird social kind of pressure there, right, because if that isn't received that way by the guy you're battling against, you know you can be looked at as you know whatever mean rude, uh, trying too hard, you mean whatever. These things are right. So what's the message to that? Like, how do you, how do you bring that to an environment, uh, as a player, or or how do we talk to them about allowing this to actually happen? That this is a really good thing? You should bring this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's tough, as you know. It's a lot different today. You know and it's funny you bring that up I remember we had a saying in our dressing room on that team like you, never let the brother beside you down, and that's exactly how we played and how we practiced, right, that's just the culture of our team, right, and I think that that's how you kind of have to to to build, I guess, from the beginning. Um, you know, from the start of the season, when you, when you're, you know, when you're building teams, you, you look at character. Obviously, obviously you, you want to build a team that that has. You know, you want to play fast, everybody wants to play fast these days, right, but I think you have to look within and you got to build.
Speaker 1:The culture that you want to build is, to me, is the character of the players you got to have. You want character kids, right. You want character kids who buy in. Once you have that buy in, then it's a lot easier to build that compete, you know, in practices and games, whatever it is. But you need the buy-in right and you've got to establish that right away, like right at the start of the season. You know from the first meeting. You know you just got to. You know, explain, you guys are here. This is the reason why you're here. You know we want you know character kids who buy in, why you're here. You know, and we want you know character kids who who buy in and and at our and at this age now, uh, what?
Speaker 1:What I'm coaching now, obviously, is that younger kids, um, yeah, you know you need to buy in from the kids at my level, at the varsity level last year, I think it was a lot easier because, um, you know they, they want to all play prep the next year, right, so they're going to buy into whatever is your teaching right to what kind of culture you want to build. They're going to buy in. For the most part, you're going to have a couple that maybe are unsure of what their role might be or not accepting roles, and that's a whole different story. But for the most part, um, the level that I coach, like for for my team this year, uh, we had a great group of kids. You know that all bought in.
Speaker 1:And another thing that you need, obviously, is the parents. You need the parents to buy, and that's a whole different story as well, right, but if you have that, if you have the kids buying in, the parents buying in, then you know that's a recipe for success to start out right and then you can start building your culture around that. But the compete level, you know, is to me that's number one. You get you, you know, you want guys that have good character and are willing to compete every day, not only in the game but but in practice, especially in practice, because that's going to translate in the games yeah and in the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, absolutely yeah. I mean, we do our workouts. You know it seemed. You know we got a really good strength and conditioning coach and you know I don't even have to go in there and like he's on them, they, you know these kids know that they have to put the work in in the gym as well, you know yeah, the um, and I think where the coach comes in, at least in my opinion, is you know you get those good kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, first of all, your recruiting has to matter and, by the way, for those listening, like you know we're talking, bert's talking about you 15 right now. I mean recruiting for that, like this doesn't stop, like the nhl draft. They're recruiting for that junior level. They're recruiting for that nhl teams once they're in the minors, they're're still looking for that From the guys that they've selected. The establishment of character as a high-priority piece just doesn't change. Get your head around that out there. Parents, players, this is a big piece. The character piece really, at the end of the day, means how good of a freaking teammate are you If?
Speaker 2:you can be a great teammate, then you got a big checkmark beside your name. So, besides that, so like, let's just say, okay, that's a requirement. But even in that group of good kids, I think that the standard of compete has to come from us, right, the guys with the whistle. Because if we ever notice it in a practice where it's not there, right, or if there's an example where it doesn't show up, whether we, whether we acknowledge, like where it isn't happening, or whether we're celebrating where it is, I think that's where we can come in right, like positive and negative, and if we let the guard down on that, then all of a sudden it can slip.
Speaker 1:Right now it's recognized as being okay not to compete yeah, I mean that that's accountability, right, you, the kids need to be accountable, right. So, and then coaches too, like you, you know you, just like I'm pretty demanding when, when, when I run my practices or or my bench, you know, um, and kids, that, the ones that that want to get better, accept that and and they can accept the, the, the, you know the, the criticism, when, when it's time to do that. But some kids you have to be, you know, you have to talk to them a little different, right, but, um, that's just how kids are today, right, but for me, um, yeah, you, you got to be, you got to demand that compete, I think, from, from, from the kids in practice, and you got to set that, uh, pretty early in the season. So they know, um, that, hey, you know, if I'm, know, if I want to move up or I want to play, or I got to compete and I got to compete in practice, I have to do the little things that matter. You know, in games, whether it's blocking a shot, my play away from the puck has to be, you know, has to be good. I got to be hard on the back check, you know, I got to finish my check when I, when I can, um and and just play. You know, play on top, get.
Speaker 1:There's a whole, there's a whole bunch of things that that you know we're teaching these kids these days, right, and and compete is one of them, right, yeah, so you know, like, like some kids you know came into, they'll come into, the season because, let's be honest, we're talking at academy levels. We're talking about high-end guys, right, high-end players that are coming to play academy. So you're recruiting high-end players that probably were the best players on their team, right? So they didn't really, you know, they can get away with with, you know, taking a shift off here or there and not coming hard on a back check every once in a while. Well, that's not acceptable, you know, on the academy, well, on my team, it's not acceptable.
Speaker 1:If you do that, you're going to get talked to and you know it better not happen again, or else you probably will be sitting next to me, you know, until you get it right. You know so. But you know like it comes down to for me and for for our level, you know you're going to roll your lines like you want. You want to get all the kids better, right? So for me at my level. I, you know I was fortunate enough to have four lines. I could play anyways.
Speaker 1:But you roll your lines. You want. You want the kids to get better, you want everybody to get better. So you give everybody a chance. And you know, but if you're not going to compete and you're not going to, you know, like I said, you're not going to come hard on a back check. You're going to take that shift off. You know you're probably not going to see the next shift and if it happens again, you know you're going to sit along. But I don't like to sit kids. But sometimes the message isn't getting through. That's the only way to do it. Sometimes you have to, but I don't like doing it. But you know that's part of it too. You got to teach kids. They got to be accountable at some point, right?
Speaker 2:I love it. The other thing that I just want to highlight that you talked about was the the compete from the goalies. It's like, yeah, that is such a core facet of any good team is goalies that give a crap about fucks going in the net, like for real care, right. Um, I said that to any goalie that I ever work with, right that I'm doing spring teams right now. You know, and it's like you, if you guys are the most competitive players in practice, like our team's going to be amazingly better, because I completely remember that every team I played for the goalies that made it hard for me to score in practice especially for what I did as a job like it made it way more fun, like it made it way more fun and um, and made everyone better, right, like.
Speaker 2:So I think that for any of those goalies out there listening like, oh my gosh, like from a player perspective, from a team cohesion perspective and chemistry perspective, and you want to get a coach in your corner, like be hard to score against, like all the time, and uh, and you're going to be loved for a long time too absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean defenseman, right, I'm a defenseman. So when, when I see my goalie you know battling for every puck, you know let me, hey, I'm not gonna let this guy down. You know I battling for every puck, you know that made me, hey, I'm not going to let this guy down. You know I'm going to do, I'm going to block this shot, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do whatever it takes to to help this guy out behind me, right? So, yeah, I mean I've been fortunate.
Speaker 1:You know, I played with a lot, of, a lot of really good goalies and I what? The one? The one? Um, when I played in the ihl in cincinnati, joff sergeant man, that guy competed for like every puck in practice. I was like, oh geez, he doesn't like getting scored on at all. And I was like, oh yeah, I've never seen anything like it, like it was. It was pretty special, right.
Speaker 1:And you know, like, like I said, that team that we had in colonna was like everybody and that's really where I learned how to, how to play. Really, you know how to compete. You know this is, this is what it takes to win a championship. You needed, like, this band of brothers coming together doing whatever. Whatever it is that that needed. You know, I remember when we were playing in the playoffs we were in Penticton playing and one of our players Silverio Miro is his name, he was a 20-year-old and he dove to block a shot with his face, like this is the kind of like buy-in that we had. We would do anything to win the game right. And he I still remember he just dove with like head first to try to block a shot.
Speaker 2:Like it lasted the game, by the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you know, we had visors, but this guy wanted to win so bad, you know, 20-, 20 year old last year, like he was willing to take a, a slap shot in the face to buck, so to win the game, basically, and I was, like you know, I was a 17 year old kid going holy jeez, okay, this is you know, this is what it takes.
Speaker 1:this is this is what winning, this is what winning is right. You know, this is this is what you need to to be successful. You got to compete and you got to do whatever it takes to win. Yeah, and we won the championship that year, so that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, back to the I mean just the goalies, like Derek. So Derek Plant was on. I mean you played against him in Asia there for a while, Helvin NH Eller, but he played with Hasek, right, and he told Hasek's story on his interview like how crazy competitive he was, like psycho almost, with how competitive he was and what a great athlete he was. And then, like my, I mean I played with a lot of good goalies too and a lot of competitive guys. But the one that really stood out for me, which I've told in this show before and who's been a guest, but was Cristobal Huey.
Speaker 2:So it was the lockout year in whatever it was 06, I think. The NHL had a lockout and so a lot of these NHLers were coming over to the different European leagues, right. So Cristobal came to us in Mannheim. This is an NHLer, right? This is why it still blows my mind. Right, this is an NHLer who had immense amount of success in the NHL too at the time as one of the top goalies. He came to us which could have been just like uh, you know, a European party kind of right like let's go, I'm just gonna get some ice time in and get some games in.
Speaker 2:And he was the freaking hardest working guy on the ice, like every time, and like I and I would watch him like there'd be practices where I legitimately thought nobody scored, like the entire time.
Speaker 2:You know like he was so good and he was so competitive and he did it with a smile on his face and he made it so much fun for everybody around. I was just like wow, like you know shit, I played on so many freaking teams dude, like that. It was so memorable how he showed up and how he did his thing that it was like impossible not to make the connection of like oh, that's probably why he's pretty freaking good too.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like yeah, yeah, um, so anyways, I just, I just love those stories when you see, like pros that are really taken being a pro to like that next level and uh, and you and you get it right and and again for those goalies out there. If I put it in your toolbox, it's, it's such a, such a cool thing to be just want to take a short break from the conversation with Bert to uh share some new news in the up my hockey world. Uh, and that news is that I will be joining Coeur d'Alene Hockey Academy in Coeur d'Alene, idaho, for the upcoming season as the U18 co-coach, along with Jeremy Milmock, and I will be relocating my family down there for the hockey season. All three of my boys will be playing for Coeur d'Alene Hockey Academy and, yeah, I'm really excited about the opportunity. Now I'm going to have Jeremy on. We're going to talk about Coeur d'Alene and you know the my choice for for going there and and and why I'm excited about it. Uh, but as far as up my hockey and what that means to up my hockey, it doesn't change much of anything, uh, of what is happening with up my hockey. Uh, up my hockey mindset programs will still be being delivered by me and through my associate coaches, I will be working with my inner circle. Still, I will be running team sessions and, yeah, life will move on in my hockey capacity, as will the UMH 68 Invitational in 2026.
Speaker 2:So what this is is this is a move. So what this is is this is a move. I mean we're taking it as a short-term move. I guess, like we are not buying a house or selling our house. We are moving down there for the hockey season. Uh, my family and my boys and and I'm really looking forward to pouring my heart and soul into the players there at the cordelaine academy and we're really excited about, uh, about the new adventure. But again, it does not change. Again, it does not change the podcast, it does not change the mindset programs, it does not change the UMH 68 Invitational, it doesn't change my inner circle or the players that I'm working with on a mindset side. All it means is that my daytime hours will be invested with the team that I will be coaching and the players that will be coaching there. So, really exciting times.
Speaker 2:If you happen to be somebody that is in the Western Hemisphere here and is trying to think of a place to play, coeur d'Alene is offering a U15, a brand new U15 AAA team or a varsity team that will be entering the CSSHL. That's where my youngest TJ will be playing for that team. They also offer U17 AAA, u17 Prep and U18 Prep, so there is a team there that might be available to you. We are looking to fill the last few spots with some quality individuals and some quality hockey players. So if that is something that interests you, if me being there interests you and you would like to be coached by me you're at that U18 level and you're not sure where to go I would love to entertain a call, as would Jeremy Milmock, my co-coach there. So reach out to me, let me know if that's something you're interested in.
Speaker 2:I will say that the facilities down there are absolutely fantastic what they call the field house, where you can train, or it's right next to their classrooms shoot pucks, work out, throw the ball around, play some ping pong, you name it. They got it there. The players have access to that facility. The rink is right across the parking lot. It's a one-stop shop. It is a place for players who want to improve, who want to get better stop shop. It is a place for players who want to improve, who want to get better, and the coaching staff there the family of coaches is quite phenomenal, from what I have got to know so far. So, yeah, we're really excited That'll be a move that we've been making in the fall here of 2025, 26.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to make that announcement here and just to let everyone know that, up my Hockey will continue as usual. Now let's get back to the conversation with Bert Henderson. Let's go back to you. So colonists. Okay, so you keep talking, but you were talking about your draft year earlier, so your draft year was technically in the bcj and then you went. So it was like your second year of eligibility, where you're like, hey, I want some more exposure, I think, I think something might happen here for me. So we decided to go to tacoma yeah, so um so actually.
Speaker 1:So I'm a november birthday, so um late birthday. So going into Tacoma was my draft year, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Now I got you. You're like my kid, he's November 29th. You get that extra year of like.
Speaker 1:Get that extra year, so after September 15th, right? You're going to the next year's draft, right?
Speaker 2:So I'm taking it over, so you walk into there with some expectations, and you have a good year too, like so and then I noticed you didn't get drafted, so walk me through that year you walk in there, you're expecting things, you have a good season and then your name doesn't get called. How did that whole season go Right?
Speaker 1:So going into that year I was kind of you know, I would say probably a two-way good, two-way guy. I was, I would say, probably a two-way good two-way guy Just moved the puck, played power play like second unit on that Kelowna team, which I was never going to be on that first unit because it was stacked, so I got second unit minutes on the power play. I had a pretty good year. I think I had something like 30-something points or something like that, which wasn't bad for a 17-year-old D-man at the time.
Speaker 1:So I knew I had offensive abilities right and at that time that's what I wanted to be, I guess, was I wanted to be more offensive and at that time, you know, there wasn't a lot of guys doing that. Like it is today, like you know, everybody kind of has a lot of offense. The games just changed so much where d-men so involved in the offense. Now, back then it really it really wasn't. Like you know, you had your big, big, strong, tough d-men that everybody wanted. Uh, no one was really looking I was undersized.
Speaker 1:you know 511, you know um. But I wanted to be more offensive. I figured if I put up some points, um, you know I'll get noticed, uh, possibly get drafted. So um ended up working my way um into the, the top power play that year, um, which you know I, I I worked on, you know I worked hard. You know I had a good off season coming into camp. I had a really good exhibition season Started out. You know the learning curve, obviously different league, bigger, stronger guys, tougher guys League was tough back then, right as you know so, and I just kind of wanted to establish myself as maybe a power play guy and hopefully teams would be looking at that Um. So I had a pretty good year. That year Um ended up 50 something points or something, 52 points or something like that Um and I thought, okay, that's pretty good year, Hopefully someone's going to notice Um.
Speaker 1:and ended up ended up not getting drafted that I talked to a few teams and um anyways didn't, didn't end up getting drafted, so um, you know, it's fine, it's no big deal was it well well, yeah, it was. It was because. You know, was I expecting to get drafted? Probably I was at the end of the world? No, because I had another, another year right to to get, to get drafted, probably. Oh, is it the end of the world? No, cause I had another, another year right To to, to get to get drafted.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 1:So I'm like, okay, I gotta come back a little, you know, probably a big, a little stronger, bigger, stronger. So I hit the weights pretty hard. Uh, I think I came in camp probably maybe 10, 10 pounds heavier, stronger, probably maybe 10, 10 pounds heavier, stronger, right, um, and, and you know, at that time you know you get your whatever it is three, four fights a year, whatever it was. You know, back then that's just what, what you did, um, right. So, um, you know, I got it started out, start, you know, gotten a couple of fights, um, but still I I'm like, do I really want to do this? Not really, you know. Uh, you know I'd rather play the game, right. So I'm like, okay, maybe, maybe, you know, I just try again. So, obviously, still, you know, power play guy, offensive guy.
Speaker 1:Um had another pretty good year, um, you know. So, so, figured, I was going to get drafted that year. I think I got 60-something points that year up, my point total 61 or something like that. I think it was 61, 62 points. Pretty good year I thought I had. We had a pretty good team that year. I think we finished second. I think we lost to you guys in the.
Speaker 1:They had that funny round-robin playoff format that year, I think it was, and you guys beat us in overtime maybe, I think and eliminated us, but we had a pretty good team that year. I think we finished second place that year I think it was second, but we had a really good year, a really good team that year. Um, I think it was second, but we had a really good year, a really good team that year um. So I figured, you know, this year it could possibly happen. I was hopeful, um, my agent was hopeful. He. He said, yeah, you're, this is the year um. And he actually called me from the draft um said sorry, it didn't happen. And he was shocked and I was like that that I was that that hurt, because I thought that year I I did everything that I possibly did individual success individual success.
Speaker 1:you know I was playing a more physical role still putting up points, but yeah, so that was, that was that one. That one hurt a bit um, surprising a little bit um, because you know how it is. You see these guys getting drafted and oh okay, hey, you know okay, but you know so, but that was tough. And then so, after that, you know, the big move happened. So we went from Tacoma and then, you know, you heard the rumors that were happening, we're going to move, we're going to move to Kelowna. I was like, oh, that would be awesome, you know, if we go back.
Speaker 2:If we're moving anywhere.
Speaker 1:Kelowna would be the best spot Because we've obviously been there before, won there, Comfortable there spot, because I've obviously been there before. One there, comfortable there, had the same billets, went back, lived with my same billets. Um, you know, um, and again you know, had a pretty good year that year as well. Um, and finally, no, actually going into that year. So sorry, going into that year. I went to ottawa's camp. So I got a camp invite. At least didn't get drafted, but I got a camp invite. Uh, so about that year I went into ottawa. That was uh. So I went to rookie camp. Um, pretty good players were there. Daniel alfredson, that was his rookie camp too, so I remember being at rookie camp with him.
Speaker 1:Um, and my roommate was andy delmore, who ended up playing yeah, yeah so we were roommates in rookie camp small world man, yeah yeah, so uh, yeah he, he ended up playing for quite a while, but um dude that was a good experience.
Speaker 2:So deli and I were really good buddies in uh in manheim because we played there okay, uh together. And we still talk, like I mean, I'm still buddies with him but like, looking at like his career, like when he was in the show he had like two or three, maybe even one one year in like defenseman goals scored in the entire NHL, like the whole thing I know Like so underrated, like and off the radar as radar, as far as like what he was able to accomplish, and then, like still being an up and down guy for some unknown reason, right, like yeah, anyways, but yeah, like that's wild that you were your roommates with a
Speaker 1:great, great dude, but uh even even in that camp you can just see oh this, you know, kind of he's really good, this guy, like you know, he's gonna, he's gonna do something, like you can tell right and the end of the like he ended up doing it like, but, yeah, so that was a great experience for me.
Speaker 1:Um, just kind of seeing what it took. You know what it said. I remember, uh, alphason doing the vo2 max, just crushing it, going holy cow, like you know. Okay, I gotta step up, like I thought I was in good shape, right. But then you see this guy breaking records, basically and I'm going, okay, yeah, I gotta change my workouts somehow, like, because I was you know how back then I was, I was more about lifting heavy, heavy weights, heavy weights, heavy weights. That's all I did was lift heavy, because I thought you had to be big and strong. But you know, in reality I should have been doing more core stuff, more legs, you know, more power skating, right.
Speaker 1:But coming out of that camp was an eye-opener going, okay, you know you need some work to do, like, it's not easy playing at this level, right. So came back, um, got named captain of the team that year, um, and we had a pretty good team that year as well. Um, we got rob gordon back from michigan. He he was a good buddy that I grew up with playing minor hockey with, and we convinced him to leave Michigan after a year. So he came and joined our team. We ended up making a few trades that year, brought in Surrey from Prince George. So we had a pretty good team to make. I thought to make a pretty good run and again we just kind of crashed out in the playoffs again. But it was a good year for me again, points-wise.
Speaker 2:That was a really good year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, put up a bunch of points, and then yeah, same kind of points, and then yeah, same kind of thing. I don't know if you remember playing in that old barn up in Kelowna.
Speaker 2:You ever play in that memorial, so playing dub games in there.
Speaker 1:it was like I go back there and I go just take a peek in there. I'm wondering how the hell did we play dub games in here? Like it's crazy, the atmosphere is great, not. And that team that we probably had the toughest team, like I mean we had scott parker, uh, todd fedorik, uh, and then we traded for sheldon surrey, like we had these heavyweights, just nobody wanted to become players. Purrington yeah, we had him, but then we ended up trading him to Lethbridge that year, brought in Hamilton Lee Hamilton, who was another pretty tough guy, would fight anybody. And we had guys that just, you know, just would. Yeah, like we had Jason DeLorme, he'd fight any like little guy but he'd fight anybody. You know we just had a handful of guys that just would fight at the drop of a hat and you know nobody would come. And you know there's so many battles with, like Jamie Butt was tough too. Jamie Butt, yeah, butter was tough man.
Speaker 2:You know what, though, Like you said already but not that your team, but every team had like three, yeah, at least, yeah right and like and again, even like your second liners were tough, would fight, you know like it was just a tough league for sure. It was a tough league and for those listening so, I mean so sheldon surrey, who we both know, obviously you played with them. He was my age, my draft year, yeah, um, I mean nhl all-star right8 million like led the league in goals Like. He went on to have this awesome, awesome, awesome NHL career and you essentially outshone him that year. Right Like you had 74.69 games, surrey, when he came over at 27 and 27, you had set more goals than him.
Speaker 2:Kind of one of those things. Right, when you look back on it. Right, like, so there's this guy like, there's you, you in in that point in time right like, relatively your peers. Right, and you're maybe even outperforming him in some ways. He had been drafted. You hadn't been. What would you say like looking back on that now? Or even the player he became, or you know the career you had. I've done that with my own self too right like do you, do you see any differences there? What was the difference between you and him at the time? Why was he able to maybe do what he did at the NHL level, if you know what I mean by that question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what man? He was just such a great guy.
Speaker 1:We really hit it off when he came in. He didn't have an ego or anything. You know, he had the, the big contract, I think, with new jersey, um. But man, we, we hung out every day, just the down earth. Real nice guy, um, but he was such a specimen, you know, like he was just like we were like boys and he was like a man. You know, and you know that shot that he had, imagine that shot in the little Memorial Arena, right. So you know, I try to send him a one tease all the time, but you know, you're like, like that.
Speaker 1:But you know Definitely gifted physically, eh, Like from that side, like big, broad shoulders, like put together right Like Just, you know, like like a man a man playing with boys right um, and you know, not necessarily, you know, offensive defenseman, I guess you'd say you had the big shot right, you had the big shot, um, but but it was just a real tough.
Speaker 2:You know, nobody wanted to mess with the guy, um, but you know it put up points just because he was such a uh, uh, you know such a such a man against boys right and, and that translated to to you know, when he went at the nhl right um, he was still like a man there, you know, like when you were talking earlier kind of about what you wanted to be, right, like meaning you wanted to be an offensive defenseman, right, yeah, um, one of the things I mean, I don't know what you do, what the hell hold on you, okay, yeah, so when it comes to player identity, right, like what you want to be sometimes isn't maybe what you can be or should be, right, or really understanding what that is. And I think when I'm working with players now, it's one of those things that I want them to understand. Hey, what are your gifts, what are your strengths? How do you become valuable?
Speaker 2:Sheldon Suray's case I think that maybe he had an advantage, obviously on both of us, was that he didn't have to be offensive originally at the NHL level, right, like he was big enough and strong enough and could defend well enough. That that's probably how he got his foot in the door and then he the rest of his game evolved. He was able to use that big shot and then be an offensive you know force really at that level?
Speaker 2:When you look back on you like, do you feel that there, like if you would have reconstructed it now and understood maybe how to get your foot in the door or who you could have been as a player, Would you have changed anything when it comes to that?
Speaker 1:That's tough, you know, I don't know, like, I guess my game back then was more suited for the game now, you know. So when I look back, what could I have done different? I mean probably nothing. Nothing really, because I was undersized right at that time. Um, to be a d-man, you know, you had to be six, two, six, three, six, four.
Speaker 1:That's what they wanted, all teams wanted, they wanted big guys, right, and you had a couple guys that were, that were undersized, under six feet um, that could play, but you had to be like spectacular, like you know. Six feet um, that could play, but you had to be like spectacular, like you know. Yeah, you had to be really good, um, and you know, I, I, I think I guess I did everything good and you know, and never, never really had that one thing that set me apart from from other guys, um, I guess. So I mean that's a tough question because you know, yeah, at that time my game, I, you know, there there was, there was, um, I guess there there was a spot for somebody like me in the game back then. Obviously you know there was. But to the next level, my game, you know it would have been hard to translate to NHL because you had to be, you know, really good to play my role that I had to play in the nhl at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, whereas now in the nhl, you gotta, you got most of your d are all mobile d that that are involved in the offense. You know, even on my team I I want my d involved in the offense. Right you go we have the puck. We got five guys thinking offense. I don't care what position you are, we're thinking offense, right. And then you know when you turn the puck over it's different. Then you defend right. But um, yeah, you know, it's it would have been tough.
Speaker 2:It would have been tough, tough yeah, reason I asked that is like because me personally, like I always took so much pride and value in scoring right like I, I was a goal scorer and I love being a goal scorer, and I just thought I mean, if you scored enough goals, you're going to end up wherever, wherever you need to be, you know the rest will kind of take care of itself. And and you know we were from an era we already talked about that. It was a tough era. I mean, I wasn't afraid to drop the gloves. I felt that I did that more than enough for how many points I was putting up.
Speaker 2:But the other side of that is is like finding more value in things that aren't scoring, you know, and maybe in my case, right, because like with all your eggs in that basket, you know if you do get called, up in a third line role or a fourth line role or wherever right, like if you're not really taking value in what that role provides value with for the team, then maybe you're missing an opportunity there, right, because you haven't really thought about it that way. Um, another example that comes to mind is dennis holland, who's been on the pod before. Like he was a little bit before our time but played in portland with troy mick.
Speaker 2:He was a vernon guy like 160 point kind of guy in the whl, right like lit it up there and uh and never, ever played an nhl game and he said he's like I just wasn't a good enough skater but I didn't realize it. Right, he's like I didn't realize it and I didn't work on it, because I was getting success by doing what I was good at and I practiced what I was good at.
Speaker 2:I didn't practice what I you know what I should have been practicing should have been practicing right um, so anyway, I been practicing right, so anyway I just think there's like there's kind of those little micro examples sometimes that show up, where it's like you know, oh well, maybe you know, and it's not like looking back with grief or remorse, but it's just like hey you know, maybe, maybe I could have done this.
Speaker 2:You know like, maybe I could have had this sort of perspective and I try, try and encourage players that now to be like you know, to be good wherever you're going to be like everybody wants to be a point guy and that's kind of where I got in my head thinking about you right, like no one is playing hockey. You know, you 13 or you 15 thinking geez, I want to be a checker my whole life right and I get that.
Speaker 2:I don't think players should want to, but there is still value in doing this, still value in that, absolutely absolutely that's part of building a team.
Speaker 1:You need, you know you need your point guys. Obviously you know you have your point guys, but you need other guys that do the other things. Yeah, you know that are just as important. You know, like I'm really big on play away from the puck, right, your play away from the puck has to that's what we do. We do video. Your play away from the puck has to be, that's what we do. We do video.
Speaker 1:We do a lot of video and teaching the kids, you know, what to do, because they haven't really been taught. They're coming out of Pee Wee and that, you know it's a lot of skill development in those years, right, so they don't really learn how to play away from the puck. In Adam and Pee Wee you know, maybe a little bit, but not at the level now where you're academy, and then at the prep level when you enter your WHL draft year. You know scouts are looking for that, right. So I try to teach the kids you know, like, when you don't have the puck, where should you go, what should you do, what's my responsibility, you know. And then in the offensive zone, in the neutral zone and also in the d zone, like all zones. We've got to teach kids. You know, I guess you can say how to play the right way.
Speaker 2:Right, that's the big thing, but you know so, and those are the, those are the details of the game, for sure that that do end up mattering, right, like they matter, they matter a lot. Um, as, as that final titans and I guess I mean back to my point about like player identity is is like the ability to self-assess, what you are is a very, very good tool to have right and and like I've had a lot of players that have come up and you know, you know, I am a goal scorer oh, oh, really, the goals you had last year?
Speaker 2:oh, 12. You know, like really well, how many goals do you? You know 15, I'm like. Well, are you? I mean, is that an accurate assessment? Like you might like scoring goals but like you haven't really ever done it in any kind of capacity. Right and if and if that's the way you see yourself, like you're gonna have a really hard time fitting yourself into a puzzle piece somewhere because you're not maybe as or what you think you are maybe as good at what you think you are good at right, like that's a tough conversation sometimes as a coach to have, because you don't want to put a ceiling on guys but you also need to like be real I think, truthful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, absolutely those are. Those are tough conversations, you know, especially kids kids, uh, that are, you know, the age that we coach, right, those are tough conversations because everybody, you know, with, with all the social media out there, everybody wants to be goals for everybody. That's what they see right and that's what they want to do. And sometimes it's tough to have that conversation with, with kids, like, hey, man, like you know, let's let's talk about your play away from the puck, let's hone in on that. Let's let's get that first. You know, before we're talking about goals, I always told the kids like I don't care how many goals they score, I don't care how many points they get, let's have.
Speaker 1:Let's look at the video after the game and see how we did when we didn't have the puck. Let's look at that. You know, and we did, and that's how the kids learned by the end of it. You know the kids were all dialed Like we had a pretty good run in playoffs and that's just buy-in from the kids, you know. And it's tough to get right, as you know, it's tough to get, but once you get it, you know you can do something special, like the kids are willing to learn right, and that's big, a lot of classroom work, right, they're really the learning there. It's going to translate on the ice. That's the best teaching tool, right? It's just a lot of classroom stuff too. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I mean it's nice when they, when they do understand like that one principle. You're talking about being above the puck like I don't want to get into a coaching seminar right now, but I I call reloading in the offensive zone to keep trying to attack from above and from above, like you get the puck more right, like when they, when they do it you have the puck, more so now you're getting more offensive, getting more scoring chances.
Speaker 1:So like that, that reward for playing that way is a nice you know motivator for them to you know to buy in right, yeah, yeah, and it took us a while to figure that out because, like I said, they don't learn that, right, coming from peewee or whatever, they're just told go go get the puck, go get the puck. Well, there's a certain way, you've got to go get the puck. It's like playing chess, right, I always told them we play chess, we don't play chess, but we play chess, you know. And then we, and then we, you show them the video. Okay, this is how it's done, this is what works. Okay, you see how it works. Oh, then they say, oh, okay, yeah, we get it now. And then, like, by the end of it, we were like on top, we're on getting it, like it was fun to watch.
Speaker 2:It's really fun to watch yeah, that's fun as a coach to see that come, come into fruition too.
Speaker 2:That's great. Uh, I think I think it is kind of the new dawning, though, of like, the power forward I, I think you know, like, because back when we played like everyone, we, we talked like everyone had some element of grit, right, and toughness. You just couldn't play if you didn't. You know, I don't care who you were, um, but now it is like there's there is more skill and there's more emphasis on skill, and it's the highlight reel era, and everything on ig is, you know, a toe dragon of this and of that, like that. That's what all these kids want to be, but they're not all as good at it as they think they are. I mean, and and and I think that we kind of agree on that.
Speaker 2:And the the unicorn now is is the power forward, the guy that does take pride in the blocking shots and the guy that wants to go to the net and knock the net off the moorings and, you know, maybe get the odd scuffle. So, like I, I just think that when I do see a player like that now, like a little bit of a throwback, it's like, oh my gosh, you have no idea how valuable you are right, no idea what you're doing. So like I think it's kind of cool, right, the stuff that we're talking about is actually in really high demand because less guys are willing or wanting to do it, or maybe our coach to do it right.
Speaker 1:So for anyone out there, yeah, you know, go ahead no, I was just saying like we just got done with our id camp, right and and our exit meetings. It's actually it was. We had a couple kids, um, who were like yeah, I'm you know, like so asked what's your identity as a player? What kind of player? Well, I'm a power forward. I want to. You know, I'm a grinder. I was like really, that's awesome, like you know, like you usually don't hear that you say, oh, I want to score goals.
Speaker 1:You know, you know, I want the puck. I need the puck, you know, okay, but we had a couple kids that came, good players too, and they and they actually they're on our going to be on their prep team next year. That just said, um, you know what I'm? I'm a power forward. I want to be a power forward. I want to be the guy taking the puck to the net, you know, causing chaos. Um, you know, I'm a grinder. One kid just said I'm a grinder. You know I'm gonna grind it out. You know if I score, great, you know, but you know, I want to be a grinder. We're like this is awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so refreshing to hear that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know so there are some out there that that that know their you know their value Right.
Speaker 2:No, and I'm, and they're ahead of, they're ahead of the game. That's all I'm saying. Right, like if you, if you are in that scenario and you like doing that and you self-identify with that and you're like, yeah, let's go throw a puck in a corner. I want to go get it like awesome, right, like there's, there's a place for you to play for a long time probably, with that mentality, right, absolutely, absolutely there always be, you know, always always yeah.
Speaker 2:So when it comes back to to you, um, to pull the, to pull it back in, you ended up making the, making the jump to the international hockey, and it's specifically Japan. Yeah, I don't want to jump through, but I mean, obviously you had some pro time too, so you were, you were playing pro over here in North America. You know from my I'm guessing you didn't get the look that you wanted or the opportunity that you're getting there and you're like you know what this might sound like a good opportunity, let's go, let's go to japan. So maybe walk us through, like the like, the decision to go there and then we'll get into your time in japan sure, yeah, no, um, so, yeah.
Speaker 1:So getting back after colona had pretty good year. Um ended up going to actually east coast league. Played one year in the east coast league, um in birmingham, one of the best years of my life. Had so much fun. Went down there. A couple of buddies that I played with in junior we went down there living on our own for the first time. I was 20 years old, just turned 21 in November. Anyways, great year. Had so much fun, developed, had a pretty good year there as well, and then got signed by the affiliate. So since cincinnati was affiliated with birmingham, so they liked what they saw out of me, I guess, and so I ended up signing a contract with them, went up there for for. Ended up there for two years.
Speaker 1:Um played for ron smith, um, great coach, you know, taught me a lot. Um and my second year, during my second year, um. So the the olympics were coming up in japan, um, so actually willie desjardins, who was coaching over there at the time, um, he found out that that I was half japanese, that my mom was Japanese and they were trying to get all these heritage. You know, players with Japanese heritage come over to Japan to, to to play for the national team, to play in the Olympics, um. So I remember Willie calling me and I was like, no, like you know, I got this dream right. I got this dream playing the NHL. You know I'm only 20. At that time I was 23. So you know, and you know, you hear, you know, at that time, for defensemen, 25 is kind of the age where you really take the step and you develop into an NHL player after you know, playing in the minor. So I'm like I got a couple years to kind of develop um and see what I'm doing. So I said I'm not ready for that yet, um, but um. So, willie, he kept in touch with me, um, throughout the year.
Speaker 1:Um year comes to an end. I had a pretty good year, pretty good year that year and then ends up. Our team now is going to be affiliated with Carolina in NHL. So they're going to sign some players off of our Cincinnati team and I was one of them. So I'm like, okay, here's my chance here. So they're going to sign some players off of our Cincinnati team and I was one of them. So I'm like, okay, here's my chance here. So you know, you're excited, you know, okay, they want to sign you to an NHL contract. You know, it was obviously a two-way contract, more for me playing in the minors at the time, which you know. That's what I asked. That's what I want. I want a chance to prove myself right.
Speaker 1:But Willie kept calling, kept calling, and you know Japan, like it's pretty good money over there that they were throwing around at the time. So I didn't want to go, honest to God, I didn't want to go. It took my dad, my dad, who's a money guy, numbers guy. He kind of sat me down and said you know, son, you're going to have to go over there. This is a pretty good contract. You know, are you going to make the NHL? Like? He had to just give it to me straight. Are you going to be in the NHL? Probably not, right, but if you go over to Japan and you play, however many years it is, you can come back. You'll have a nice little nest egg, um, and you can start your life after you. You finish in japan, because this is a really good opportunity, um, just to, to, to make you know your life a little easier, right, um, after, after hockey, right, and I was like I don't want to go. Man, I have this dream still and I finally realized that you know what it's probably, you know.
Speaker 1:Well, I was thinking at the time I'll go over there for a couple years and then come back, right, just, you know, okay, I got Willie coaching me, you know great, you know he's an NHL coach, you, you know he's a great coach. Um, so I'll go over there, you know, I'll play a couple years and then and then come back and and give it a shot again and then have a little, you know, save up a little money, right, um, but I ended up staying there. What was I there? God? Uh, seven years, seven, eight, eight years, I think. I ended up staying there. You know, it was just like. You know, it's not bad.
Speaker 1:Well, I played the two years for Willie in Sapporo and then our team folded, ended up folding because they had some scandal with the company that owned the team or something. So they ended up folding the team. So OG, the team that we played on together, called me and said it was about 45 minutes from Sapporo. So I said, yeah, come play for us. You know, signed this contract. So I was like you know, it's pretty good, too pretty good. So ended up going there. I played there for six years and then, um, yeah, I had a pretty good run there.
Speaker 1:So, uh, loved it there, you know loved it there. Uh, different, obviously different, as you know, it's a lot different. Um, hockey's not huge there, right, but pretty good living. You made, uh, short season, so you get come home early, you know, but uh, no, I loved it there, met a lot of good, good people, a lot of friends there. Um, I'm my mom got to come visit you know quite a bit, and she loved you know quite a bit and she loved, you know, going back. She was born there, so that was nice for her to have her give her that, you know, that opportunity to go back to her country and visit she loved it. So a lot of good memories there, a lot of good memories there.
Speaker 2:Did you end up playing in the Olympics that year?
Speaker 1:No, no. So I actually didn't want to leave, so I had to. I would have had to left that year, um, and they were, so they were given um, yeah, so they were basically trying to to recruit that year before um, my second year in cincinnati. So they recruited a bunch of guys like, uh, dusty dusty went over there. Um, guy ryan kubara went over there. A bunch of guys like Dusty Dusty went over there, ryan Kubara went over there.
Speaker 1:A bunch of guys went over there, got their passports played in the Olympics. I didn't want to leave. I figured I was still young, young enough where I still wanted to give it a go.
Speaker 1:Right, and yeah so I didn't get to play in the Olympics but went there the year after I think it was the year after the Olympics and then, yeah, stayed there for eight years. So I had a pretty good run there and a lot of good memories. So it was a lot of good memories, a lot of good people. Like you know, the imports just kind of hang out, but you know Japanese players all want to hang out. You know it was, but you know japanese players all want to learn. You know the north american style or the north american way, and then you know the north american way of living. They want to all want to learn english. So you know, and everybody's so polite, they're so nice. Um, the food is fantastic. Like the food is unreal there. So, yeah, I miss it. I'd like to go back there and visit, uh, one day.
Speaker 2:so yeah, that was fun, that was a really neat experience for me, for sure, and uh, and that team was cool and um, yeah, I mean six years. I mean I was there for I think two months or something. Right, I couldn't imagine yeah six years would be. Obviously that's a whole different experience. But uh, but even even my experience there, experience there, it was just awesome. Imagine hockey right Like you would never have thought that at 16 years old playing for the Rockets right that you're going to be a professional in Japan, right.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know they had hockey over there. To tell you the truth, I had no idea until Willie called me and said, yeah, I coach a team. You know coaching team here and you know, want to get you over here. You know, I know your mom's Japanese. I don't know, like this is how good Willie was recruited. I had, like nobody knew that my mom was Japanese. Like like you know what I mean and and he knew, somehow he found out, like that's how good a recruiter he is. Like he found out that I was, that my mom was Japanese, and called me in Cincinnati the one year saying, hey, come to Japan and play for me.
Speaker 2:That's wild and you know what Small world again. But my first ever pro game was played for the Cincinnati Cyclones. They called me up from Spokane for the playoffs. That was when, when there was like a maybe a full affiliation, but Florida's affiliate was was, yeah, cincinnati at the time so they yeah, they called me up there I think I was 19 years old, like, and that was an IHL, was an old league then, right?
Speaker 2:it was an old league yeah, so I was like most of the guys were late 20s, in their 30s, right and there I am running around, you know, you know, playing my games, or whatever it was a little bit of a fish out of water but I mean, yeah, that's cool. So I got the. I got the cincinnati cyclone jersey in the in the closet right oh yeah yeah, awesome yeah I love my time there too.
Speaker 1:I had two years there. I loved it there still have friends here.
Speaker 2:Still have friends there that's cool, the um, let's switch. So I mean you, you play out your time there in japan. You end up going to england. But I want to talk about the bcj, uh, and even where it is now I mean. So just for the record, you were, you were part of the langley riverman langley you know trappers before that um, but with the rivermen and the bcj and and like the landscape of junior hockey now is fricking wild. But like what was your? What's your memory of your time there as GM and head coach and and being a part of that, that, that piece of of the hockey? You know tapestry there in in Western Canada here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so my so family owned Rivermen. Dad and uncle owned it from I believe it was 2011, um, so I had just finished playing. You know how it is after you're, you're, you're done playing hockey, you kind of just need a break, right. So took a little bit of a break from hockey. Um, wanted to try just other things and and this and that, so took a, took a break from hockey. Then obviously, my kids start playing. So you get back involved. So start coaching, coaching the kids, kids, younger kids, you know hockey two, three, four, whatever it is. So start doing that. And then it comes up okay, my dad's wanted to. You know, we wanted to get an affiliate Junior B team for the Rivermen. So I'm like, oh, that's a good idea. So we ended up buying an expansion team in PGHL, which were the Langley Trappers. So, expansion team, we're going to affiliate. So I ran that for four years, um, so I was head coach gm there for four years. So ran, uh, so basically the plan was uh, I'll get all the young players to come, you know, play for the trappers and we'll move them up to the rivermen. So we had quite a success doing that, um, and then it came up where now the job's going to come up for the Rivermen.
Speaker 1:So you know, at the time I was still heavily involved with my kids hockey, coaching them and my dad's like, well, here's an opportunity now Is it time to move up? So I had to really think about it, because there would be less time with, you know, coaching my kids and being involved with the kids, so that I now I had the younger boy coming up doing the same thing, chase was coming up, jake was kind of getting older now, um, but still I still wanted to. You know, not just being about go watch his games and just be, you know, you know what I mean um, just just still be able to go and and and watch games, um, the very least, right, and and coaching junior b, run the junior b. Everything was local, so, uh, no travel. So I was able to do that. It was pretty good, just a good lifestyle where I can run, run the trappers, I can help coach, uh, the kids, um, and be around to watch them play.
Speaker 1:So, so when the opportunity came up at this time, I wanted to move up. I wanted to move up. I felt I was ready. I wanted to coach at a higher level you know, put in some good years. And even before that I spent while I was coaching before the Trappers.
Speaker 1:Actually, I spent three years coaching with John Batchelor with the Burning Winter Club Bantam team, which was the premier Bantam team Well, now it's U15, but U15 team in the lower mainland, right. So a lot of good players. I was able to coach a lot of good players those three years and I learned a lot from John Batchelor who was, you know, he's coached guys like, you know, nugent Hopkins, barzell, fabbro All these guys came through Bernie Winter Club that Batchelor coached, right. So I was fortunate enough to learn a lot those three years coaching with him. So that now and then that was before the opportunity came for the trappers.
Speaker 1:So now I thought, okay, I'm ready for the trappers, had four, four really good years developed a lot of guys moved, moved them up to junior a. So I figured, okay, now I'm ready, ready, I wanted to take the step, I wanted the new challenge. Um, so the opportunity came up that Riverman's going to need a new head coach, gm. So I was like, okay, I'm ready, it's time, let's do it. And so we did. And first year we had a great run, you know, went all the way to the semis.
Speaker 1:You know at the start of the year. That year we didn't have one committed um hockey player like college commit on it. We were the only team in the league didn't have any college commits. I think by the end of the year we had 10 or something like that. So we had just a great again.
Speaker 1:That's a great group of kids, yeah, great group of kids, uh, who bought in right away, wanted to play for each other. You know, competed like hell in practice translates the games right. So we went on a really good run that year, ended up losing in the semifinals. But, like I said, part of that's moving kids on, right. So move kids on. You know, 20-year-olds for for the most part all their 20s got scholarships, um, I think all division one, maybe one division three, um, but pretty good. And then our younger guys got a lot of looks, got um scholarships as well. And then, yeah, the second year was more of a rebuild because we lost a lot of guys after that year. Yeah, right. So the rebuild Again. You know, pretty good team. It was about moving kids on. We moved kids on that year and then the year after again After that, we sold the team, ended up leaving my last year and then headed back Burner Winter Club where it all started to coach my younger boy.
Speaker 1:So back where it all started, which is nice, and this year was one of the most fun I've had coaching. Again, going back to that age, I really like that age, the U15 age, where you know, kids are really starting to figure out how to play, and that's what I like. I like teaching this age and on how to play, and and and that. So I had, I had a. You know, like I said, we had a great group of kids and I had probably one of the most fun years of coaching this year.
Speaker 2:Awesome, yeah, yeah. I know it's kind of like I've been asked that too. You know like well why. You know why aren't you coaching like wherever right, bcj or the Vipers or, and the offer I mean the odd offer comes here and there, but it's like for me, I think my biggest decision was being around my kids, like you just said, right, like they're still they're still in it, like my oldest, is an 09.
Speaker 2:He's now eligible for for major junior this year for the first season. He probably won't go. He's a Blazer draft pick. I think that he probably needs another year, but we'll see what his winter or summer looks like and how that all pans out. My youngest is just stepping into U15, and my middle boy's a goalie who's just stepping into U18. You have a job anywhere else. That's outside of that age, realm right, like you never see them, ever right.
Speaker 2:So it's like yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't, I'm just in a spot where, hey, I want to be dad, you know, and I want to be around and I want to be involved, and, uh, and I think that they still want to be involved. Have me be involved, which is nice, you know, and, and whatever capacity, whether it's a dad role or whether that's just a skills dad role, or whether that's maybe even behind the fence right like, um, it's nice to be able to do that, so you know to to do these other levels.
Speaker 2:It can get a little bit much and plus it becomes a little bit I don't know, maybe too professional, if that's the word like too much about winning. You know too much about not necessarily development, you know yeah.
Speaker 1:I like the development aspect.
Speaker 2:I think that's a good spot to be in. Yeah, no, that's that's.
Speaker 1:That's exactly like what I'm saying. I love this is my favorite age to coach, right? This is kind of I think this is where I should be really you know.
Speaker 1:I but I enjoyed coaching junior, don't get me wrong. Um, I enjoyed it um three years. You know, if you count trappers, seven years, right. So I did it for seven years. Um, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I enjoy coaching the older kids too, right, because they're still developing, they, but it's more, it's it's more, not more, but a lot of it's life too, like you got to teach them about life too, right and and I don't mind doing that, that playing that role as well. But I really enjoy the u15 age, where, where they're just starting to figure out how to play right and and they need some guidance on on how to play, like I said, the right way, you know how to how to play without the puck. You know they're just starting to figure out, uh, how to learn from watching video, um, and just just to get them ready for for the next step, right well and contact bro like and contact exactly and contact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we haven't even talked about that, yeah, it's the biggest step, I think.
Speaker 2:I mean people always ask me. I mean I'm like that's the biggest step and it's, and it's because the game changes. You're now playing a different game again. And then there's also that huge well one out west here they're going into high school for the most part, right. So they're going from elementary school to high school. They're going from no contact to contact. Some guys have hair on their balls, some guys don't. You know what I mean, right, like it's like there's so much happening at that age group that that it really is like they're just getting hit with a water hose, you know, like it, like holy smokes.
Speaker 1:A lot.
Speaker 2:And to be a of that development aspect in all areas, right like life areas, school areas, social areas, hockey areas, like it's a big move and and I always say to parents, like, don't underestimate it, right like there's a lot going on for these kids at that age.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's, it's huge, like it's it's. You know they're we're traveling for the first. They're on their own, for the first time traveling in a hotel room, right. A lot of responsibilities, right, like keeping keeping your room clean, like you know, don't you know even small things like packing your bag properly, right, bringing enough snacks. Bringing, you know, calling mom or dad, right, like some kids. Just don't they forget, you know. So we gotta remind them. Okay, you know we're taking their phones at night, but during the day, you know, after a game, okay, here's your phone. Call mom or dad, let them know how you're doing, right. But they're growing up. They gotta grow up fast now, right. So a lot of new things that they're going through. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:I want to take another short break to talk about the UMH 68. The 2012 BC event is full. The 2011 BC event has some spots available on D and on forward. There are some invitations that are outstanding, but if you are someone who deems you are worthy of coming to this event and you have not applied yet, the watch list is how you do it. That is, at upmyhockeycom. If you would like to nominate somebody, that is also where you do it at upmyhockeycom. If you would like to nominate somebody, that is also where you do it at upmyhockeycom. The watch list for the 2011 division is available. And when we move east to the Saskatchewan event, the 2012 event, we are full, except for defensemen. So again, there are some invitations outstanding. I believe we're down to a half dozen spots available, but if you are a 2012 defenseman in either Alberta or Saskatchewan and you would like to attend the event, check it out at Up my Hockey.
Speaker 2:Moving farther east, we have our Manitoba 2011 event. That is the first one coming down the pipe and we do have some room available at Forward and at D Boy. We want this to be an outstanding event. So, by all means, because we are new to the area. We do not know all of the players who are worthy. So there have definitely been invites going out, but don't feel like you are being ignored. We just may not know how to get a hold of you. Finding the emails and getting the emails delivered without being filtered out into spam and all these other things that happen in the email age is quite difficult. It actually is a way that I spend a lot of time that I wish I didn't have to spend in reaching out and reaching back out and trying different ways of communication. So if you are one of those players in Alberta or Saskatchewan as a 2012, or if you are a 2011 elite player in Saskatchewan or Manitoba, please let yourself be known on the website upmyhockeycom, fill out the watch list, let us know where you played, let us know that you are interested in coming to the event. We verify all watchlist applications with a call to the coach or somebody in the hockey network and we will get you your invite. So, yes, getting into crunch time with the Manitoba event. So, by all means, that's at the end of what are we in now? April, that's at the end of May. First weekend of June is when that event happens. So we want to fill up the registration list as soon as possible. Get your names in. We want you there. It's going to be fantastic.
Speaker 2:Now let's get back to the conversation with Bert Henderson.
Speaker 2:When you talk about your kids so your oldest is an 08, just had his first year with the rockets uh, how has it been through that lens, like for me, it's been a completely rebirth for me and like and me falling in love again with hockey.
Speaker 2:You know, like I definitely had it as a kid, definitely had it as a junior, kind of got a little bit jaded as a pro at different times, right, and then when I was done, like you said, you kind of need a break I was one of those guys that needed a break and my break was fairly extended and then my boys started to play, brought me back in, started to see the game through a different lens again, like what opportunities that brought for me to help, you know, for me to be able to serve and and, um, and yeah, I completely loved the sport again. You know, I mean from a completely different level, on a personal level, um, how, how that been with you, and now you know, using your experience, using your knowledge, to support the kids that are yours that want to play this game, and how have you been able to navigate that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know it's been awesome. So when he got drafted, when Kelowna obviously I talked to Kelowna before the draft and everything I was like this would be ideal. You know if you guys can get him and they ended up drafting him so you know that was a special moment. He was third, third round.
Speaker 1:So he's 50th pick yeah, 50th pick. So that was pretty special because we weren't sure they didn't have. I think they had two third-round picks because they traded away all their high picks from the previous years, right, because they were hosting the Memorial Cup in 2020 before COVID and all that, right.
Speaker 1:So we're hoping that Kelowna would get a chance at him. And they did, and they drafted him. It was awesome, super cool. Yeah, so it was. But at the same time, you know, like the rules hadn't changed yet. So, you know, jake, he was pretty good in school changed yet. So, um, you know, jake, he was pretty good in school. You know he, he actually wanted to go to to school, um, originally, right, but we're just like, okay, well, clone, if they get you, you know, we'll have to have the conversation right, just right, just just because you know. So we did. So, you know, after he got drafted, he still was like, oh, yeah, it great, you know, but I think I still want to go to school. So that's okay. Yeah, that's great too, right. And then you start. So he went out. He played his U18 year at Yale. He's a 15-year-old.
Speaker 1:After the draft, had a really good year. Real good coaching there. Adam Neutron-Hopkins um, um, real good coaching there. Uh, newton hopkins was coached there. Um, had a really good year. They had a pretty good team. Um, uh, they they playoffs, uh, different story, but they had a pretty good team. Didn't do well in playoffs, but, um, so they came up and watched in the playoffs and we had a nice conversation, um, leading up to to the playoffs. I was had a nice conversation leading up to the playoffs. I was talking to Bruce here and there, and we actually met with a couple of BCHL teams at the time too, because Jake still wasn't sure what he wanted to do.
Speaker 1:And then you hear the rumblings about, okay, there's going to be a rule change. I think it's coming, it's coming. We don't know when, could be next year, but but we're pretty sure that it'll come. If you're you know in your time in the WHL, whether it be next year or the year after, it's coming, it's going to be coming. So we kind of took that into consideration and we're like, hey, you got the best, you know to me, the best organization that you know I, I know will take care of you, I trust them. Um, you know. So we ended up making the decision to to sign there.
Speaker 1:Well, actually, right after playoffs in penticton, we drove up to to Kelowna and signed the contract and you know, for me that was a special moment, right, just seeing your kid sign with the team that you played for, right. But again, like you still got to put the work in, you still got to make the team right. So I had a good summer training last year. I got to give him credit. He, he worked his ass off, um. And then you know special moments going up there actually seeing, you know I went up there in an exhibition game in camels first, seeing him come out on the ice with my number two 27 right, wearing my number henderson on the back, wearing my number Henderson on the back Pretty special, pretty special moment, right. So yeah, and then you know, I went up there, me and my wife would go up there every chance that we could.
Speaker 1:You know Everett's pretty close to us so we go down to Everett if he played there. But every weekend that I had off we'd go up to Kelowna and watch. So we were able to watch them quite a bit here and there up in Kalamooks, up, you know, in Kelowna. When they played in Kalamooks we got to check. Now, obviously, when they play the Giants in Vancouver, we had, you know, my God, we had 40, 50 people come to those games. A lot of families and friends come watch them. So pretty, pretty cool, pretty, pretty special for me to see that and go through that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I wanted to share in that with you. I was rattling Spokane's chains a little bit with Hudson, yeah yeah, yeah. Because he actually wanted to go there too right, it was more kind of originated from him being like that'd be so cool to play there. You know, like where you played and you know where your picture's on the wall in the dressing room and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:But anyways they ended up taking them and Kamloops did. Well, you know, aaron, it's so funny, like our triangle. So like Aaron Keller, who Bert and I played with in OG, is the head scout there in Kamloops now and they ended up taking him. And I mean fantastic, right, like super grateful, like what an awesome organization, and I know they're close to home yeah, close to home, like there's so many check marks when it comes to that.
Speaker 2:But there was a little piece of me that was like, oh, he's not going to play with the Chiefs but anyways, it's kind of fun when we have our own history there.
Speaker 2:But thinking about you, talking about Jake, we talked about U15 being what I think is maybe the biggest transition. But then I was just like you know what that 16-year-old year going, going from minor hockey I don't care if it's academy hockey, whatever it is to the whl and inability and responsible in a whole new way, and playing with 20 year olds like that's got to be. I think that I mean that's got to be a tie for first, potentially, like I think that was a bigger move for me than it was even going pro, right, like once I've lived on my own and you know me, finding an apartment. Like, yeah, there was some new things about being a professional that were different, but it wasn't as big of a transition as going to a new country, new billets like this league, 72 games on the bus all the time, right, like managing school, managing, like all this other stuff that you have to do.
Speaker 1:How was it for Jake this year and being a WHLer at 16 years old? Yeah, so, you know, at the start, um, well, I think it helped him that that he went. He went up there. He lived with two other guys on the team one one was a friend from here um, so that helped with the transition of of living away from home. Right, because he had two other guys that you're living with. You know it's, it's Pogs, players are, they hang out, everything's good. So I think that helped.
Speaker 1:As far as the playing, you know you go from playing, you know top minutes to now, okay, you're a 16-year-old in the league you're going to have to slowly, kind of, you know, earn your, earn your spot, earn your minutes. Sure, you have to play 40 games, but you know that's the rule that 16 year olds have to dress for 40 games, right, but you know you have to put in the time and the effort and and um, mentally, you got to stick with it. It's there. There were times cause you're going to sit out goals too. Right, that's just how it is a 16 year old, you're going to sit games. These kids have never had to sit games, right, these 16 year olds coming into the whl. They all been top players wherever they're coming from, right. So cologne had four of them this year, right, top players wherever they played, never had to sit a game. So there would be times where, you know, I'd get a text like after a game. He's like, can I call you later? I'm like, of course you can call me later, you know. And then we'd get into the conversation Well, how come I'm not playing, like I don't understand. Well, son, this is the WHL. It's a tough league and being a 16-year-old in this league is tough, especially at the start of the year where you're just starting to figure things out, right, so there's a learning curve here.
Speaker 1:So you need to just, you know, put your head down, go to work, listen to your coaches and that's it. And don't never complain about you know anything. Okay, you always just listen Anything. You don't complain about anything. You just do what you're told, okay, if you know, if a vet tells you to go pick up the pucks, go pick up the puck. If he tells you, you know, you've got to do your rookie duties too, right, you know how it is. You know, like, pick up the pucks. No one should even have to tell you that you just go do it right. The trainer needs help with something. You do it Like you know unpacking the bus. Do it, help the trainer, do everything, like you know.
Speaker 1:There's certain things that you got to do as a rookie, as a 16 year old, and there's a learning curve. You're gonna have to sit games. That's just the reality of it, unless you know you're you know landed dupont or you know these guys were. You know you're, you know Landon DuPont or you know these guys were. You know high-end guys that you know they're not going to sit. But if you're, you know you're a player coming into this league who's got to earn it. Hey, you got to earn it right and there's no excuses. You got to do, you got to put the work in right. So stay up to practice, work on your shot. You know work on your skating, work on your shot. You know work on your skating, work on your transitions. Just, you know, if coach is free, ask him to to go over some video with you, whatever it is. You know you just got to do everything you can to develop. You know at that.
Speaker 1:At that you know first three months I would say it's really tough because that's the learning curve. That's when you got to kind of earn the trust of the coaches, right. So you know, he, he was fortunate that he did that and he, he, he got a lot of time playing with Caden Price, which was helped helped him out a lot. You know, I think Pricer helped him out just just by, you know, being able to play with him when, when, when Pricer was in Kelowna, right, so he got that opportunity to play with him and he learned a lot off of that and he really, you know, he really did develop and by the end of it was playing pretty regular. So you know, it was nice to nice to see, because you know those first three months were tough. It'd be like phone calls, like you know, like quite often you know it's the talk about, like for most, for most, guys, it's the toughest time uh oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I mean I know you trust where he's at, you trust your organization, you know. You know from a hockey player standpoint that it is part of the process. I mean, there is the argument from other sides. Maybe we won't use your son as the example in this case, but some people can't handle that, you know, whether it be from an emotional standpoint or maturity standpoint, and maybe more minutes and playing another year of u18 might be better for some players. Like, how do you speak to to that side of it? And, and you know, do you think like if you can play at a certain level, you should play at a certain level, or is there maybe some gray area?
Speaker 1:no, I think, I think there's an argument definitely for to. You know, you say um the term overc. Like you go, you play, maybe you're you're, you're ready to, to make the step, but why not stay at U18 for a year and dominate right, help your game develop and there's that argument as well.
Speaker 1:Like you know, like I've had that conversation with players when, when I was coaching junior as well right, like, are you ready? Probably, um, you'd probably be in and out of the lineup playing a lesser role. I'd rather have you go play another year u18, dominate right, and then come in the next year and play a bigger role yeah right.
Speaker 1:So, um, so, and that goes. It depends, obviously, like you said, some kids can't handle doing, you know, sitting out games, not playing. You know what they're used to Like. You have these high-end guys, you see it all the time, these high-end guys that come play junior expecting to okay, I've been the guy, everywhere I went, I've been the guy, I'm gonna be the guy here, or you're not playing tonight, what, what, what? You mean I'm not playing tonight, what, what, like, why you know, like you see it all the time. It it's just like well, yeah, you're not playing tonight, you're scratched.
Speaker 1:I want you to watch the game right, watch the little details of watch how you know so-and-so is your captain, watch what he does, watch him right. So I mean you see that. So I think there is an argument definitely to keep kids you know, to overcook you call it right and play U18 another year, right, just to develop the confidence right. Some kids can't deal with that playing that role. You know and you see it quite a bit right and it's unfortunate, right. But other kids can, they can and they thrive after it. You know and you see it. You see it quite a bit right and it's unfortunate, right, but? But other kids can, they can and they thrive after it. You know it's good learning, it's good learning. You know that adversity, right? They?
Speaker 1:go through it, and then they come out on the other side and that always makes you better, right?
Speaker 2:so yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean that's, uh, I mean that's, I guess that's the, the, the million dollar question, right, are they going to get through it? You know, and, and hopefully, if we, if we arm them with those skills you know required, that help them, you know, to get through it, they will be better for it. You know, because you know you, you just said it the adversity is what galvanizes you as a human, that that solidifies what you want to do and who you want to become and the player you can be, and all these things, and that's kind of like the. Yeah, that's the juice of that rookie, that rookie season, right, uh, do you get out of it being exposed to that environment? Right, knowing that you were able to get through it. You know, like, all those things are are reinforcing. But for some kids, right, it's just like, no, like that, that could be shattering and they could even leave the game potentially. Yeah, no, we've seen it, yeah we've seen it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure. Well, geez, we've been talking along, and I want to talk about your kid, though, too your younger one. Yeah, it's such a cool story. I think we should talk about that before we sign off. So you had the opportunity, your younger boy, this year, that the 2011, and and, uh, you're saying that he is overcoming some pretty, uh, major adversity to be able to play like sure, sure, that story, yeah so uh.
Speaker 1:So chase, my youngest, he has. He has something called stargardt's disease, okay, so actually my older daughter has it too. So older daughter, ava, um, and then jake's, the fortunate enough not to have it, and then Chase, so it's hereditary retina disease. So basically it's a retina disease where you slowly go blind. So my daughter, her vision is pretty bad right now, so she's considered legally blind.
Speaker 1:Chase isn't as bad as Ava, but he's still considered legally blind. So basically he plays without any central vision, he relies on peripheral only. So he has his peripheral vision but he has no central vision. So he won't't he'll see objects. He can't see any detail, um, so he can just see objects. So he'll miss a lot of.
Speaker 1:You know, like he's not going to get any backdoor tap-ins or anything like that, um, but when he has the puck he's pretty good. When he has the puck and he can go, like he can go for check, he can go hunt, and and I, when I'm on the bench, I yell instructions out to him like okay, puck is in the corner, go, go in the corner, go in the corner. Okay, switch side, switch side. So a lot of it's verbally me telling him where to go right or what to do. So, yeah, he's, he's, he's done pretty good. He had a pretty good year. He scored five goals, I think, and and had 20, 20 something points as a you know playing academy hockey against the top 2011s, really, you know, in in western canada, really, right.
Speaker 1:So, um, pretty pretty cool story, pretty cool for him to to be doing what he's doing, you know wow, freaking, courageous and brave yeah, you know yeah what's his mindset like when it comes to it.
Speaker 1:You know what he just he doesn't let it bother him, he just, you know, goes out, he loves to play, just loves to play hockey, right? So, um, you know, and and again it goes to to the team that we had just great group of kids. Man, that just the support, the support from the parents of the kids, like we just had such a good group group of parents and kids this year that, that, um, you know, helped him and you know, help you know, me, my wife, my wife obviously, watching the game and and you know, just the support from the parents was huge. But the kids too, the kids, cause kids are kids. You know, they don't really probably understand what he's going through. It may be a little, but, yeah, you know, like we had such as just great kids that you know, support them.
Speaker 1:Like if you'd miss a path, like no one's going, oh, you got to get no. It's just like, oh, I should know what they say. Oh, I should have passed it softer so you could have got it. Like they took the blame for it, you know, instead of you know saying, oh, chase, you got to get no, no one ever did that, it was just like, oh, I gotta put you, I gotta put that puck in a better position for you. You know, sorry that's my bad. You know, like it's just amazing, these kids, that um, that we had this year, so um no, but he's, you know he's, he's loving it. You know he's loving it. He just goes out and plays, man just loves it yeah that's it right.
Speaker 2:So it's about having fun playing yeah, I love them, but just to me, I'm just thinking that, like the game's so freaking hard, it's hard enough with two eyes, you know, I mean, let alone, yeah, to see exactly what's going on or where it's coming from, or, you know, even pressure, like I'm thinking about that, that's why, it's outrageous, right like yeah sure, it's great to have the puck, but it's also great to know when someone's gonna come I know, yeah, right, yeah, that's my job.
Speaker 1:I got to tell him when somebody's coming right Like head up. It's coming now, so he'll brace himself, right. But yeah, no, he did pretty good this year. I'm pretty proud of him.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome. I can imagine how proud you are. That's super cool. Well, yeah, he was a past guest on the podcast and he freaking played with one blind and one eye completely taking that shot. And anyways, he had some pretty wild stories too. Lots of inspiration from Willie. I couldn't imagine playing the game at that high a level either. No, crazy. Lots of cool stories out there. Glad you get to be a part of it with your boys and great that you're uh lots of cool stories out there.
Speaker 2:Glad you get to be a part of it with your boys and uh, every year being able to, uh, you know, impart some of that wisdom there and at Burnaby Winter Club. So, uh, thanks for thanks for coming on, man, is there anything last words? You want to? You want to provide anyone out there, as far as you know, making some dreams come true, I mean it's.
Speaker 1:It's to me if the kids out there you know it's there's a lot, so much skill development. Skill development, which is great, you need that, right, um. But but to me, there's so many different things that that you, you have to do now to to take it to the next level and and a lot of that is a skill development you definitely need that. Off-ice training, I think, is huge too.
Speaker 1:Kids don't realize how important the off-ice training is now, whether you're doing yoga or proper weight training, there's a lot of good trainers, trainers out there, but I think the office component gets overlooked sometimes, and it shouldn't, um. And then like like yourself, mindset, right, mindset coach. Like you know, these kids need need to be in the right mindset, right so, um, there's so many different things that that kids, kids, um, could do these days, right, um? But at the end of the day, it's about, it's about having fun and playing the game that we love, right so, um, I love doing what I do and I know you love doing what you do, um, and you know it's what's all about helping kids get better, right, right. So that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the key too. I mean all the stuff that we talk about, the high performance habits and the engine, you know that's required for that. I mean you're talking about the gym, you're talking about the compete on the ice. We're talking about, you know, maybe being willing to do some work, personal work, on your mindset, like that doesn't happen unless you fricking love what you're doing, or it doesn't happen in an authentic way unless you love what you're doing. So you know, first and foremost is what I'm trying to talk to these, you know parents and players about is like, let's fall in love with this game, right.
Speaker 2:And when you do fall in love with it and the intricacies of it and the game itself and the team component of it and all these different things, to have a passion for the rest of it comes a little bit more easily, you know, a little bit more natural. Because, frick man, when it, when it's all work, when that's all work, you know what I mean Like it's it makes it harder Right so.
Speaker 2:I think that's where it starts from you mean, it's such an easy thing, and I think every parent, mom and dad out there says go, go, have fun. But that really is like the core of it. I mean like find a way to have a good time with it and and a lot of that other stuff is going to, is going to be taken care of itself, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, for sure Love it.
Speaker 2:All right, buddy. Well, thanks for thanks for coming on. Really appreciate your time and um anytime, buddy, we'll be talking again.
Speaker 1:Happy to do it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you. Thank you for listening to the entire episode. Again, if you have not downloaded this and you've gotten to this point, by all means press pause. Download the episode. Let the analytics speak for themselves. I want to have every single download accounted for. I would love to know what the actual listen rate is here of these episodes and I will be sharing the results shortly. I think that is a small ask of you to press pause and to press download, so hopefully you've already done that. I appreciate you if you have, and I appreciate you for being here. I hope you had a great experience with Bert, learning a little bit about the Asian League, what it's like to be a hockey dad in today's environment and also what it's like to be coaching today's youth. Lots of takeaways from today's episode. So until next time, play hard and keep your head up.